David Builds an Altar
The angel directs Gad to send David to Ornan’s threshing floor to build an altar. David goes there, and when he meets Ornan, he asks to buy the site so the plague may be stopped.
T18hen the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19So David went up at the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD. 20Now Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked out and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed facedown before David. 22Then David said to Ornan, “Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD. Sell it to me for the full price, so that the plague upon the people may be halted.”
Ornan offers the site, the oxen, the wood, and the grain freely, but David insists on paying the full price. He will not offer to the LORD what costs him nothing, so he buys the site with gold.
23Ornan said to David, “Take it! May my lord the king do whatever seems good to him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering— I will give it all.” 24“No,” replied King David, “I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the LORD what belongs to you, nor will I offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 25So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the site.
David builds the altar and offers sacrifices, and the LORD answers with fire from heaven while the angel’s sword is put away. David continues sacrificing there, for fear keeps him from going to Gibeon before the tabernacle and altar already standing there.
26And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the LORD, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. 27Then the LORD spoke to the angel, who put his sword back into its sheath. 28At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29For the tabernacle of the LORD that Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering were presently at the high place in Gibeon, 30but David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.